First Name Basis
by JoeMerl
Summary: There are lots of issues with Zuko joining the Avatar's "Gaang." Some are concerned with life and death, good and evil, trust and betrayal. Some, though, are just plain awkward. Set after "The Western Air Temple." No pairings.


This is my first _Avatar_ fanfic, just a little one-shot I was inspired to write after last night's episode, "The Western Air Temple." A weird little issue about Zuko and the "Gaang" working together occurred to me, so I decided to write this down. Please read and review, and I hope you enjoy!

* * *

Things were very awkward for Zuko at the Western Air Temple.

There were several reasons for this. For one, there was the fact that the leaders of his new group were people he had stalked halfway across the world and had battled as an enemy on several occasions. There was the fact that they were all essentially refugees or fugitives from the Fire Nation, and that their sworn enemy was Zuko's own father. There were the more recent facts that he had accidentally attacked and wounded one of them, and had sent an assassin after them who had only just been defeated and killed.

But there were also other, smaller things that made Zuko's new situation somewhat uncomfortable.

"Hey, could you bring this to Sokka?"

"What?"

Zuko snapped out of his thoughts. It was the crippled Earth Kingdom boy, sitting across the room in the strange rickshaw device he used to get around. He had been immersed in writing something for a while, and now he was holding up a scroll to Zuko.

"Could you take this to Sokka? It's just some stuff that'll help him on the project he's working on."

"Oh...right." The Avatar's team had been working ceaselessly on little "projects" since the failed invasion--Waterbending techniques, rebuilding fallen parts of the Temple, planning new attacks. Zuko had taken most of their busy time as a chance to sit and brood alone.

Zuko reluctantly took the scroll and headed out of the room and down the hallway. As he walked he could feel a cold sweat break out on the back of his neck. Encounters with the Avatar and his friends were always difficult--it was slightly easier with some of the others, Zuko's fellow "ancillary members" of the group, whom at least he did not have such a bad history with.

As Zuko went nervously through the passages of Temple, his mind was focused on two things--his nervousness and Water Tribe names. At the Southern Tribe at least, he noted that they all seemed to end with -_a._Sokk_a_, Katar_a_, Kan_a_, Hakod_a..._for goodness sake, how could you even tell which ones were for men and which were for women?!

He found one of the central chambers, a cave cut into the rock cliff, where the Avatar and his closest friends were working. The two girls were both practicing with the Avatar, trying to hit him with both water and stone as he dodged and danced around their blows; the Water Tribe boy was sitting in a corner, trying to ignore them while looking over a diagram of the Temple structure.

"Hmm-hmm." Zuko cleared his throat awkwardly, knocking on the outside of the cave wall as if it were a door. The Avatar and his friends stopped their practicing, the boy his reading, and all eyes were instantly on him. All of their looks were distant and cool, except for the Water Tribe girl's, which was downright gelid and filled with hate.

Oh, when was this going to get less nerve-wracking?

"I, uh--" He cleared his throat again, holding up the paper. "Have this, for, um...Sokka."

The Water Tribe boy sighed and held out his hand. "Okay, give it here."

Zuko sighed with relief, crossed the room and handed it to him, the others still following him closely with their eyes. Sokka unrolled the paper and glanced at it out of the corner of his eye.

"Teo gave you this?" he asked offhandedly.

"Um--yes," Zuko said quickly, hoping that was the right answer.

"Okay then." Sokka kept looking at the paper; Zuko took the opportunity to start edging out of the room, when suddenly the Earthbending girl asked, "Oh, wait, could you do us a favor and go get Haru?"

Zuko stopped. "Huh?"

"No, _Haru._ Tell him we need to do that thing I was telling him about earlier, he'll know what I mean."

Oh great fire spirits he was trapped.

"Um...alright," he said slowly, edging towards the door. "And, uh...where might he be?"

"Over in the southern tunnels. Just tell him that I'll be done with Aang in a few minutes and I need to see him."

Zuko's mind raced. He finally had to conclude there was no way out of this--eventually he was going to have to admit the truth. _Well,_ he thought, _might as well make it now._

"And, uh...who...exactly...do I say needs to see him?" he asked, feeling his face burn slightly.

"Me," the Earthbending girl said, turning her head quizzically, her gray, sightless eyes narrowing slightly.

"Um...you who?"

"What do you mean, 'you who?' Me!"

"Well, um, uh--what _exactly_ should I say to him?"

"What do you--"

"Oh my gosh!" the Water Tribe boy said suddenly, mouth dropping open. "You're kidding me?!"

"What?" the Waterbending girl asked, looking from Zuko to her brother with a confused look on her face.

"He doesn't know Toph's name!"

"What? No--of course I do, uh--uh, Soppa--"

"It's So_kk_a!"

"Oh." His face turned redder. "Right, that's what I meant--"

The Avatar tried to suppress a giggle. Well, at least he found this amusing. The Waterbending girl looked furious.

"I can't believe this! You've chased us halfway around the world, spent months trying to capture us, fought us, tried to kill us--and you never even bothered to learn our _names?!"_

"Well--it's not exactly like we've ever stopped and had a friendly conversation!" Zuko said defensively, taking a step backwards as the Avatar's friends closed in on him, looking enraged. "I mean, come on, it's not like--"

"You know, this makes perfect sense," the Earthbending girl said, crossing her arms; she seemed angry but perhaps a little less than the others. "I mean, now that I think of it, he never even really talked to us before a few days ago, we never really had a formal introduction. Still...I mean, come on. We're pretty important too, ya know!"

"Yeah," the Water Tribe girl said haughtily. "I mean, before a few days ago, he never cared about anything but 'capturing the Avatar' and 'restoring his honor.' But I can't believe it--I'll bet you don't know any one of our names, except for Aang's!"

"Um...right," Zuko said awkwardly, scratching the back of his head and looking from one angry face to another. "Uh...which one of you is Aang again?"

The Avatar raised his hand slightly. The others, however, simply let out roars of outrage, spun around, and stormed out of the room, leaving Aang and Zuko alone. Zuko glared at him and then looked away.

Aang opened his mouth to speak, but Zuko cut him off. "Don't say anything."

"Well, you know, they did take the time to learn _your_--"

"Shut it!"

Aang shrugged and looked away, but smiled all the same.

* * *

...I mean, am I wrong? Has Zuko ever called any of them by their names? Or had any chance to find out what their names are? Because if not, I think some kind of awkward situation like this would eventually have to happen.

And yes, I know that Bato breaks the South Water Tribe -_a_ rule. But still, he seems to be the only one, so...yeah.

(P.S.: Thanks to mT for the correction.)


End file.
